Expats nearing retirement may need to rethink their financial strategies

Would-be expat retirees are facing delayed retirement due to the coronavirus’s effect on the stock market.

As stock markets all across the planet react negatively to the coronavirus chaos’s effects on world business, hardworking British would-be expat retirees may need to work harder for longer to achieve anything resembling their financial goals. Most affected at present are those whose hard-earned cash is mostly invested in shares, many of whom could start their retirements without enough to live on.

It’s better news for older workers with default pension plans, as these products start shifting investors’ cash to safer bonds as retirement looms, thus preserving their money in the event of a stock market crash several years before retirement kicks in. According to financial experts, savers who receive advice from IFAs should have been given the same instructions.

Unfortunately, a number will have switched to an even riskier product or gambled their savings on the stock market in the hope of more returns, but those in workplace pensions should have had their funds moved from equities to bonds as retirement dates approached. The same applies to those whose financial advisers have already moved from equities to safer investment strategies.

The unfortunate few will now need to restructure their savings plans and work for a few more years in order to amass enough for a comfortable expat retirement, especially as the coronavirus pandemic is now being considered a rout rather than an anomaly. Experts are predicting severe downdrafts in economic activity and are comparing the present scenario with 1987’s Black Monday.